July 2024 Summaries

OpenTelemetry has launched a Log Collector designed to extract usage information from logs and forward them to OpenMeter for billing and cost management purposes. The collector supports various log sources and formats, making it a versatile replacement for many logging agents. It operates by directing the OpenTelemetry Collector to forward logs using the OTLP gRPC protocol and transforms the logs into the CloudEvents format utilized by OpenMeter.

The company has introduced a Free Forever Plan, which requires no upfront costs or credit cards. This plan includes essential features such as tracking up to 1 million events, entitlements control, low latency enforcement, balances and grants management, real-time usage dashboards, Stripe integration for billing customers, and external syncs. To get started with the Free Plan, users need to sign up for OpenMeter Cloud, start metering, and monetize their usage data. The pricing page provides more information about the plan and its use-cases.

OpenMeter has introduced a private beta version of Edge Access, which provides low-latency enforcement of usage limits for online traffic. The globally distributed data plane allows quick access to balance information from multiple regions and is suitable for companies that need to enforce usage limits and entitlements with low latency. Currently in private beta, the service offers quick reads and can be tested by interested parties upon contacting OpenMeter.

OpenMeter Grants is an innovative feature that allows businesses to set recurring allowances for their customers, supporting expiration, priorities, recurrence, and rollovers. This enables complex pricing scenarios and manages customers who exceed their quotas. The ledger-style history provides transparency and accountability in tracking how and why a customer's balance changes over time. OpenMeter Grants is suitable for companies managing usage limits and metered entitlements, such as monthly, weekly, or daily usage limits, usage-based pricing, top-ups and rollovers, and occasional usage credit grants like support scenarios.

OpenMeter introduces a new Entitlements feature that enables businesses to manage customer feature access, balances, and usage limits effortlessly. This feature is perfect for companies looking to enforce usage limits like monthly token allowances, sell plans with various feature sets, or offer custom quotes and per-customer pricing. The Entitlements feature comes in three types: metered, static, and boolean, allowing businesses to implement complex pricing scenarios such as monthly quotas, prepaid billing, and per-customer pricing. OpenMeter Entitlements are available in both the open-source platform and OpenMeter Cloud.